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Wednesday, 9 September 2009

Thank you, Liz Jones

Back to school. Eventually the interminable summer holidays ended and James returned for his last year at primary school. Trousers too long and baggy, hair amazingly neat after the wild mop of summer. New bag, new pencil-case, new school shoes, new (well, new to him) blazer.Of course the sun came out and laughed at us. It always does.I’ll miss summer: the lie-ins, louche time-keeping followed by late nights to hit looming deadlines; sitting by the river watching the boys bodyboarding down the Barle while we sip Moscow Mules; dashing off to the beach at the faintest hint of sun. But I also love September, that crisp new start.New Year doesn’t really do it for me but Autumn ticks all the boxes for a fresh beginning. And it does feel like that, this year, it really does.

As regular readers know, it’s been a tough year, following on ten tough years, if I’m honest. When mum died in December, I plunged into yet another depression and the world felt very bleak indeed. If I’m brutally honest, there were days when there just didn’t seem any point to anything and only the thought of my little family kept me going.

But now it feels as if I’m slowly, cautiously, emerging from the sludge. My detox has segued into healthy eating (rather than binge retoxing) and I’m planning to get back to aerobics, fitball and circuit training. I’ve been playing squash again and, while I’m hopelessly unfit, it’s huge fun. I’m going to get sociable and have friends round again (I’ve neglected them for far too long). Above all, I’m going to get everything in perspective and be grateful for everything I’ve got.

Two events really rammed the message home in the last week. Firstly a good friend told me she was going into hospital for what would be a life-saving operation. If she didn’t have it, she would be dead by the end of October. Now that really does concentrate the mind.Secondly, and I barely like to put the two people on the same page, let alone paragraph, I recorded Woman’s Hour in a head-to-head with the Daily Mail writer Liz Jones. To cut a long and exceedingly boring story short, I had written about LJ in the Telegraph in response to her columns in which she kept running down Exmoor. Apparently we’re a bloodthirsty lot; our farmers are negligent; our men are toothless and decrepit; our teenagers are feral; our pubs are crap and the people who work in the local Co-op all have special needs. I suggested that maybe this wasn’t the most tactful way to ease oneself into rural life. Liz objected, implying she was singlehandedly supporting our local economy with her expensive lifestyle and we should be damn grateful. So we went on Radio 4 to debate how best to make the shift from city to country.

It was supposed to go out live but the producer said that, having spoken to Liz Jones the day before, they would have to pre-record as Jones was seemingly incapable of keeping calm and holding a rational conversation when it came to me.Sure enough a large part of the recording was unusable as Liz just ranted and poor Jane Garvey could not stop her for love nor money. Most of it was just silly, such as asking why, if I cared about Exmoor, I didn’t employ twelve full-time builders (er, because I can’t afford to). But one point was really interesting.‘I’m the best thing that’s happened to you in ten years, aren’t I Jane?’ she spat.At the time I was so flabbergasted I couldn’t have replied, even had she given me the opportunity.But it made me think. What IS the best thing that’s happened to me in the past ten years? My son, James, is the obvious first answer. Followed by moving to Dulverton. Followed by meeting and becoming friends with some fabulous people. Yes, I suppose I should include Asbo Jack and the mad, crazy, still half-finished Bonkers House. And the fact that I still love my husband to pieces and have a hugely happy marriage (even if he does bore for Britain on the joys of beer).

And, at that point, I felt sorry for Liz Jones, I really did. Poor little rich girl who says she has spent £400,000 on clothes, who has a drop-dead gorgeous farmhouse (albeit NOT on the moor where she claims it is) and feels the need to preface every household and item of clothing with a designer name. I suppose she thought that going on Woman’s Hour was the pinnacle of my career but, to be honest, I work to live rather than live to work. My career is certainly low-key nowadays but that’s the way I rather like it. I’ve done the newspapers and the glossy mags, I’ve sat at fashion shows and been flown first-class and interviewed rock stars. I’ve been on TV and radio. It was fun at the time, it was a hoot but it was just a job (albeit a very privileged one). Would I want to do it now? No, I wouldn’t, because it would mean being away from my home and my family.

She doesn’t have that. I know you will say it’s her own fault; that if she stopped writing about everyone she meets and didn’t dismiss everyone who isn’t gorgeous and rich and young and vegan, then she could probably find happiness (and even a man) relatively easily. But I still think it’s sad.

So, back at the Bonkers House, I’m counting my blessings on this lovely autumn day. Would I change my life for all Liz’s trappings of wealth? Would I want to see my face plastered over the dailies? No, not in a month of Sundays. Would I even want to be that thin (had to think about that one for a moment but, um, well, not if it meant cosmetic surgery and a vegan diet). She’s certainly not the best thing that’s happened to me but she has reminded me very forcefully of what the best things really are.

69 comments:

Very well said. Best things that happened to me in the last 10 years? My daughter (though like your son she's nearly 11 now), my boyfriend becoming my husband, my son, a new sense of appreciating life after being trapped in the US after 9/11, becoming involved in Guiding, steering my career into a flexible, part-time cul-de-sac that I fully plan to reverse out of when the kids are older.

What a brilliant post jane and I am so glad you are emerging from those dark days. I think you are absolutely spot on about the important things and LJ doesn't have those, and knows it. Part of me does feel sorry for her, or would if she would let me!Glorious day here too. Aren't we lucky!

The best thing that happened to me in the last 10 years was sharing my life with my husband and children. The worst thing that has ever happened to me in my life - ever - was losing my husband when he died of cancer in November.I really sympathise with what you've been going through since the death of your mother, Jane. Like you, I woke up this morning thinking what a wonderful day it was, and how positive I felt about the future.The past few months have been agonising, but I think that to be able to hang on to how lucky we are and how much life has to offer is still, now more than ever, a great consolation.

Who'd want to be Liz Jones? No husband, no kids and a career made out of being bitchy to people who have both!! No thanks! Best thing that's happened to me in the last 10 years...my ex husband leaving me and finding a nice new shiny one to replace him and going on to have our gorgeous little one together. (The other two are fairly gorgeous too!) Worst, was my Mum dying last August, so big heart felt sympathy goes out to you Jane. It's a bugger and every day brings a new challenge, but I still feel so happy that I have my lovely boys around me. Love the blog, glad I found you!www.andreadaly.com

Ah, lovely to see you back blogging, Jane, and I'm glad to hear things are beginning to start looking up. I thought you were fabulous on WH - you sounded so calm and reasonable, especially in contrast to the other interviewee (whose name I forget temporarily. I'm sure it'll come back to me...) So important to reflect on what really matters in life - and it's certainly not implants or designer handbags. Whether in Hackney or on Exmoor. xx

Great post which really struck a cord. On occassion I miss London, my career, a disposable income - but it's nothing compared to how much I missed my son yesterday even though he was only away a night - and I couldn't imagine the void that the loss of one of my parents of my husband would create.

Designer labels - pah! In the style of Trainspotting, I choose kids, I choose gardening, I choose friends, I choose a slightly dishevlled home, I choose a vinyl-obsessed husband, I choose life!

A very good post, Jane. I suffered panic attacks after my mother died - I think we all suffer when our mums die. Read the articles in the Telegraph that you mention. LJ should try living in our little backwater village - there are no posh people here and that is why we love it!

Thank you Jane for explaining why the Women's Hour debate sounded so, I don't know... not quite all there. Liz J came across as not half as batty as I was expecting, altho far too much "i'm only criticisng myself" as if a PR firm had fed her that line (you were JUST as expected - calm, reasonable, thoughtful)...and the need for major editing explains it all. Jane Garvey (what a great voice she has) sounded more end of tether than would seem appropriate to what was broadcast, and now we know why. What a shame they didn't do it live!

Great post - and it shows us just how different some people's priorities are. How transient and insubstantial happiness derived from designed lables and name dropping is and how people grasp at jealous straws when they feel their mismatched priorities are being threatened.

The best thing that happened in the last 10 years? Moving to Zambia - totally against my will, but it turned out to be the best four years of my life.

Do I regret being back here? Sometimes. But, as you say, life is for living and I remain very happily married with two fantastic kids and, despite all the changes, we have great prospects for the future.

I heard the end of your interview on Woman's Hour and you sounded very calm, level-headed and in control, unlike Liz. Thank you for your more balanced view on life.

The best thing that happened to me in last ten years - finding the courage to be who I wanted to be and not the person others expected. Sometimes that is still a struggle, but it sure as hell isn't eased by designer brands and flash houses.

Such a good post Jane. I too find Autumn the time for new starts. I don't have a new school to get anyone to, but do feel that somehow now is the time for resolutions rather than the NY which leaves me kinda cold in all ways.Hope things will only go 'up' for you now and that you can put that 'orrid old depression thingy in a big box and loose it somewhere - take mine with won't you?!CKx

Mopsa: yes, it was very odd. Isn't Jane Garvey great? I LOVE her voice. Such a professional too.

Mud: I think it's sad - she'd got so much and could have the lot....but can't see where she's going wrong. Hmm, given I have the muddy dog, I might just take the Chloe handbag! You'll get there, honey....hold the faith.

Catharine: thank you! Interesting, isn't it, how the things we don't want to do often turn out to be the best things we ever did.

Edward: Thank you. Lovely indeed is Dulverton in the sunshine. About time you came and enjoyed its pleasures again!

Mark: ah you hit the nub of it. Maybe some of us never find out who we really are....

Kate: thank you, my love. I would gladly grab your dog and kennel it with mine....jx

I'm an autumn person too - so very much with you here. And with you also in your attitude to work and life. There is more than the strikingly obvious. I heard your discussion with Liz and was going to congratulate you. You came across as I had imagined you, rational well-balanced, fun, generous and open-hearted. She just came across as hard, insensitive, and frankly loopy. These days I tend to ask myself when I am trying to sum someone up - would I be prepared - if they were homeless to share my house with them for a while. It's really surprising that most people I feel would cause me few problems. I'd welcome them with open arms. But some would be totally impossible and would give me the shivers. LJ would come instantly into that category. Well done. Double tick gold star!

I remember sending you an e-mail when you were blue and trying to lift your spirits. I tried (nowhere near as articulately as you,)to tell you that you are a special person. You work best when you are writing about and 'touching' people - you have a gift for saying what everyone else is thinking; for touching peoples hearts by talking about what's important in life - family, friends, health etc; You can move people and make them think and reflect.

Ms Jones is to be pitied. I could spit at her saying that she was the best thing to happen to you in 10 years! How dare she! Pah!

She will NEVER have what you have my friend, in a million years. Not your character, warmth, charm and wit! And trust me, she will never be loved and admired by people like you are.

It's good to have you back, on form. I didn't hear your interview, and suspect I won't try - people like that woman Liz Jones are so toxic that it's hard not to be contaminated by them. Best to let it be, feel some sympathy (who would want to be in her head, after all? it can't be a happy life), and do what you're doing now, appreciating the riches you have. And thank you for sharing them with us.

Wow, I listened to Woman's Hour and Liz Jones' voice was shaking with fury! I do think that her columns mostly poke fun at herself, as she says. Her problem seems to be that her 'light-hearted' observations on Exmoor haven't all been based on reality. The gummy men & rum baba references must be infuriating because they're inaccurate, dated stereotypes and very patronising. That she should imply that you've taken advantage of her by sticking up for Dulverton is outrageous - she's used you all for material/financial gain and should be grown-up enough to handle a robust response!I enjoyed your post hugely - and love the pic of your men!

How incredibly self satisfied to think, and to say, that she was the best thing in your life!! Maybe that is the only way she can cope with her shortcomings, to present herself as a glossy, together,powerful woman.Sadly we dont get radio here so I didnt hear your talk but I'm sure it was reasoned and calm.

I would have loved to hear the full interview, uncensored and with all those nutty comments. I hope this blog is not getting you into legal troubles?( I mean telling us the reason why it was recorded). Have been waiting for it but reading it I felt a bit uneasy.Love your style as always.Ivy xxx

Goodness I have missed a lot. Glad you are emerging from your slump and hope you continue to feel better every day. The best thing that has happened to me in the past ten years is getting married to my husband. the worst is yet to happen and long may that continue. xo

Anyone who can say she's the best thing blah blah with a straight face has GOT to have a screw or two loose. The woman is insufferable. Good on you Jane.I also saw Janet Steet-Porter's piece on how to go about living with non-London people. Quite funny.Glad you are feeling better too.

I am very pleased to hear you got to talk face to face with LJ. I can imagine she went away the worse for it, because her behaviour seems to emulate her character and her way of thinking. Is there somewhere I can listen to it over the internet?

Jane 1: Liz 0 but there agfain I think you have a wonderfukl winning team there inclusdingf Asbo Jack. Loved teh post and know exactly waht you mena about the Autumn. Onwards dear heart and hope the squah game improves!

Glad you are feeling better Jane, mourning is a very exhausting experience. The best thing that has happened to me in the last 10 years is 7 months old now and I get to spend whole days with her now her Mama is back at work. Heard broadcast and LJ heading for breakdown I think, totally irrational. People like her really should go and live in Nepal or Bangledesh for a month, I cannot believe how self centered people are these days. Thanks for another lovely blog, secondary school this time next year then.

Such a delightful post, Jane. Knew you were facing challenges, but didn't know that you were going through so much "stuff."

You did well in dealing with Ms. Jones. (Poor dear; I think she desperately needs a few friends, but doesn't know how to make any. Sigh.) I can imagine how, in the midst of all your "stuff," you can actually feel sorry for Liz.

Hope you have a grand fall. (I love fall, but maybe that's because I was born in the fall.)

Loved this post. What a year you have had. I love the way you have so clearly found your contentment. It's a wise soul that does. (Liz Jones sounds so CROSS! Must be knackering being that cross for SO LONG!!)xx

Wonderful post!! SO important to remind ourselves (and be reminded - thank you!) of those things that REALLY matter.

Can't help but feel a teeny weeny sorry for sad, lonely Liz ... esp. now that people have taken to firing at her postbox?! ... she seems so bitter & very adrift, somehow (but with only herself to blame).

Glad that you're feeling upbeat & optimistic with the advent of Autumn!

What a fabulous blog yours is! I've only recently started blogging myselfand seeing how many other witty, smart, astute and friendly women there are out there has been wonderful. I have read several articles about Liz Jones, and I have to say-you have described her to a "T". She sounds absolutely batty!Please keep writing, and I would love for you to visit my blog sometime. Kind regards,

Great post Jane! That bloody woman is so up herself it's untrue. She's in cloud cuckoo land. And doesn't she love to flash her cash. Silly bitch. I moved to the sticks of Cornwall all on my own, after 20 years in London, and it's not that hard to meet people, you just have to make an effort.

First time I've read your blog and not being the biggest Liz Jones fan, I wasn't entirely surprised by her ranting.

I've also been through losing my mum and episodes of depression. Glad things are looking slightly brighter. Exercise, getting out there a bit and taking stock have all played a big part in getting me out of that dark place. Hope Autumn marks the beginning of a happier time for you.

Having a stress related illness - so it was also the worst at the time. It's the best because I learnt so much from the experience - who my real friends are, to be able to seek help when I need it instead of having to be the strong one all the time, realising what are the real priorities in life - home, family, time to be me instead of who everyone else wants me to be, and above all else finding the ability to say No at last.

Yes, I had all the trappings that Liz Jones thinks are so important and now I know they're not worth a fig. So you're right she's an object to be pitied, which is probably the last thing she'd like! However, I see the locals are far from pitying her, as someone's now taken a pot shot at her letterbox - as seen on the local news last week!

I'm so glad you feel like you're emerging from the murk at last.

I've been lurking for a while courtesy of Zoe, Victoria, LBJ and Elizabethm, but this post demanded me to come out from the shadows this time :)

Hi Jane, I can comment here now as I deleted the blog associated to this name.

I think it is also important to point out what a gorgeous, wonderful and KIND lady you are.

Before we shared our adventure earlier this year, you saw my anonymous blog about my family situation and got in touch, offering help and support to a stranger.

I will never ever forget that simple act of reaching out to me and wish there were more people in the world like you. I'll never forget the look on your face either when you later stepped off a rollercoaster but that is besides the point.

I am so sorry to read about all you have been through in recent months. I feel privileged to have met you, to have spent time with you and to now consider you a true friend.

I can identify with some of what you write here and like others do feel a tad sorry for La Jones.

Yaaay! she's back, she's back, the Lady SHE IS BACK!!! delighted to see you return to us, you were very much missed, but it IS a long and lonely road climbing up from the loss of one's Mother; you were a tower of strength to your Mum, and you have the reward for it in J & A, and yes, even Asbo!!!

Liz Jones - what a poor sad person; listened to the interview, you were - as one knew you would be - the soul of calm and reality. Liz is not living in Exmoor or anywhere near it, she appears to me to be living on her own private planet. Good luck to her on it. She can have it.

OMG there are so many things that went through my head while reading this. Firstly I agree about summer's end (sob!), I hate it. I love spending time with my daughter doing whatever we want and I know I am very lucky to not have a full time job that would prevent me from doing that (did that one summer and it sucked).

Next, I have discovered that our lives do indeed follow cycles or a wheel of life or whatever label you want to put on it, and I had about 15 years of very hard times in many ways but they are now behind me. They may come again (hopefully a shorter stretch next time, please!) but I have learned how to deal with hard times more effectively and I am who I am today because of them (and I figure I'm pretty ok!).

But finally, I am almost incandescent regarding the ARROGANCE of that foul woman! Definition of success is NOT becoming well known (even though I had never heard of her until you mentioned her), or being on stage/screen/radio (sorry, star stuck wannabes). Surely the definition of success is a relative, subjective term and this stupid, shallow, sadly lacking in creative thought woman has no grounding for her comments to you.

Her comment 'I'm the best thing that's happened...blah blah blah' is such a cheap, over used shot that surely this is evidence alone she is incapable of enough original thought to be relaxed and confident about her writing. Would Jeremy Paxman ever use that comment? Never! Like or loathe him, he is an excellent example of someone who can think on their feet, offer well-considered, clever comments on a completely different scale to this poor woman.

She's had some uninterested editor latch onto her proposal 'city girl hits muddy welly country' and now that she's had mud thrown at her (hahaha!) rather than the chortles of her few London chums she's gone into panic. She has perhaps had a little extra rise in readership out of this moment and she is afraid the increased readers are more interested in what you have to say than what she regularly contributes.

Seriously--if you were a writer who has landed a regular column on a paper what would you be thinking? You'd be needing to keep the readership up in case the column is dropped. She is under pressure. It is incredibly telling as to both her character and her capabilities that she couldnt cope with a live interview!!

Must have sucked to have gone through that, but wow, it sounds like you really shook her up!! I'll bet she's off nursing her wounds with a lot less support than you. Well done. Very well done.

What a lovely post Jane; we should all take the time to think about the best things that have happened to us in the last 10 years. So, yes, thanks for that reminder Liz!

Well done on your very calm, measured interview, and on reminding LJ that Exmoor depends on tourism. She really didn't accept that her writings do not 'poke hunour at herself'; her work is quite humourless really.

What LJ does is 'train wreck journalism'; she exposes herself (every flaw, obsession and neurosis) under a relentless beam of self-analysis and she writes about everyone else in exactly the same manner.

Exposing the minutiae of ones life (and the bits that should remain private) is one thing, but writing about one's friends, husband (ex), neighbours and province will surely lead to tears!

Why can't she look back at her life and understand this? Also hiring a few builders won't make up for it, (unless she intends to hire every one in Somerset and Devon too. Then it might!)

This afternoon, I gave a careful listen to that Women's Hour show (while knitting in my little city apartment) and was delighted to hear your voice!

Clearly, you and LJ have very differing approaches to living in the country. I still remember an old UK tv program with P. Keith ... To the Manor Born ... or something like that, and that program had a wicked way of showing the difficulties a city person might have being accepted by locals.

It does seem as If Ms Jones is a bit stuck on herself.

You, on the other hand, sounded like the neighbor anyone would want to have living nearby.

I really wouldn't let Liz Jones get to you. All she has is money, anorexia, an ex husband even viler than she is and a superiority complex. Her main hobby is analysing her every facet to death. Nobody likes her, and for all her complaining about children and/or women with children she is actually desperately jealous (although would have been a terrible mother).

If she died today the only ones who would miss her are her pampered cats who would miss their room temperature organic prawns... for all of five minutes until they got used to Whiskas.

I did listen to Woman's Hour, thought.... hey that's our Jane.! what you said was brilliant and you were so calm and put your point of view across so fantastically. Did think that L. Jones continued in her speech with too many of the ums in between each sentence....

Give me friends any day rather than designer handbags.

So glad you are feeling better Jane, you have a lovely husband, gorgeous son who I know adore you madly, you are a very special gifted person, and please don't ever forget that you are one in a million and we would be lost with out you kind heart.

Don't forget that James has also lost a lot in the last 10 years; you were desperately trying to find yourself at the time and him coming along as a part of the youngish-married-and-house-in-the-country package didn't really suit your purposes, you must, secretly, admit.

But good to acknowledge now, though you somehow couldn't at the time LJ posed the challenge, that he is the best thing.

I've just written to the Editor of the Mail about the article in which Jones describes how much she hates "posh people." She ends by saying that she dislikes posh children and wishes she participated in blood sports so that she could put a bullet where their brains should be.

I've written that I am thinking very seriously of reporting this statement to the police, and that I feel it was very irresponsible to publish it because it might endanger children, and because it might further endanger Jones.

I'm not sure if it rises to the level of incitement to murder, but it's not far off, it seems to me. Liz Jones seems to have no awareness that her published words will alienate friends and relatives and neighbors. (Most recently, she's been barred from fashion shows, presumably because of her conduct or reporting. What good is a fashion reporter if she's barred from fashion shows?)

I notice that all of the comments have been deleted from her recent articles, so something is going on at the Mail--I wish I knew what it was!

I really do find that statement about children profoundly disturbing. Perhaps others might want to express their concerns to the Mail too.

Excellent post! I think when you've been there and done that and then tasted "real life" you never really want to go back to the glitz and glamour, not when you've round other riches and a life filled with meaning.

Your post registered several notes with me...my Dad died suddenly last October and other things have layered onto that grief...I've never quite seen the point of LJ except she's managed to make me laugh at her ridiculous notions and cat-nonsense over the years...I really do think that appreciating what we have, and especially remembering to appreciate those things, is one of the best things we can do for ourselves and those around us. Just off to find 'listen again' on the BBC4 website! Were you given the unedited version?

I visited Dulverton for the first time last week, twice in fact. I was really careful to say my name is Elizabeth not Liz... I had lunch in a smashing cafe, owned by the same people who run the Copper Kettle, The Courtyard is it? The Brie with cranberry on toast was v good and their Bakewell Tart is to die for, sublime it was. Then Castlemoor had the FitFlops I've been seeking for ages but not my size - but they had them for me by the following day. Smashing fellas in another shop managed to sort me out with a jacket I had also been lusting after for ages but couldn't find, even on the web. There's more too, but don't want to bore you. Dulverton is ace and I'm glad I'm now near enough to call in whenever I want to. I suspect Ms Liz Jones really wants to move out of the area as quickly as possible but her pride and 'hackness' wouldn't let her. She must be very unhappy there.

Hi JaneRevisiting blogs after some time away.It's funny, funny strange not ha ha, how life seems to run in ten year cycles. I came out of it about three years ago. I don't know what precipitated my new found positivity, perhaps the blogging unblocked something, but I do know I'd had a pretty shit ten years.Great news that you're emerging from the blackness, perhaps it's the one good thing that LJ has ever done in her life, even if she doesn't know it. And who could not be cheered by the glorious weather of the past month? Sorry, sentence beginning with And. I'll get my coat.....

Weird woman ! NO , not you !! HER ,of course .Being that rude is rather infantile and not terribly attractive . I thought I knew how sad I was going to feel when my mother died but I didn't . It was so , so much worse . But time does help and my memories of her make me smile at the oddest times . She's , as she always was , there for us all .

Well said! Liz Jones is proper bonkers and a disgrace to decent women. I work in an all-male office and they hold her up as the model of the ultimate women they'd all want to avoid. I can't believe she is so deluded to claim she is the best thing to happen to you in the last 10 years. That's borderline mental illness.

Oh well, like others say, you may your own choices and your own life. Glad to see yours is a lovely one!

Thanks for taking a look at my blogs. Loved the stuff about Liz Jones. Sometimes she's okay but most of the time she seems completely insane. The best bit was when the other day she said Cheryl Cole looked heavy and thick thighed in a pair of trousers. Now I'm no fan of Cheryl Cole but I mean really?? Cheryl Cole fat?! She really needs to stop reducing everything to being about what people look like and what clothes they wear. It's that attitude that has made her so insecure. I'm going to add your blog to my links as I'm sure I'll be back to read more!

Great post. How lovely that you came away from a potentially distressing encounter with such joy in your heart. Designer goodies are all very well, but they won't last or love you back. Heart warming stuff.

Leave Liz alone, Im very poor (Im from Teesside) and im not jealous of Liz's designer names, I find her writing very entertaining. Not everyone will love an area in exactly the same way as someone else. By the way, pushing out a couple of kids is not the only way to have a family. What about those who cant/dont want to have children. Giving a home to difficult expensive animals is in my view, a fantastic way to show love. But hey, I have no children and still have to work, I guess im less of a human than you. Best thing to happen to me in the last 10 years? my mother beating cancer.

Hmmm..... Jane you are a little too smug about your marriage etc for my liking. Liz Jones has given you a bit of a lift so its good you are thanking her. Not particularly bothered about her either way but her writing is entertaining at least !! PS, just read this and feel I must emphasize - I am not Liz Jones!!!

Hey, anonymous - thanks for commenting...on this very ancient post.. :) Smug? Heck, surprised and sorry it comes across like that... Just grateful for blessings, is all. And yeah, a large part of me feels very sorry for Liz Jones, it really does. Quite honestly.

btw, sorry I can only correspond with you this way - but I don't know who you are, do I? :)